1. Poetry Vocabulary Definitions you need to know to help with your writing

2. Poetry Vocabulary  ALLITERATION: The repetition of consonant sounds, especially at the beginning of words.  Ex. The snake slithers stealthily.

3. Poetry Vocabulary  ANTONYM: words that are opposite in meaning.  Examples: Ice/Fire Hot/ Cold Up/Down

4. Poetry Vocabulary  Apostrophe-an address to a person absent or dead or to an abstract entity.  Ex. “O Death, where is thy sting”

5. Poetry Vocabulary  ASSONANCE: The repetition of similar vowel sounds in a sentence or line of poetry.  Ex. Aardvarks always amble absently.

6. Poetry Vocabulary  BLANK VERSE: A line of poetry or prose in unrhymed iambic pentameter.  Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.  Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.

7. Poetry Vocabulary  CINQUAIN- a short poem consisting of five, usually unrhymed lines containing, respectively, two, four, six, eight, and two syllables.

8. Poetry Vocabulary  CONNOTATION: The personal or emotional associations called up by a word that go beyond its dictionary meaning.  Ex. Home is associated with “warmth, comfort, security.

9. Poetry Vocabulary  DENOTATION: The dictionary meaning of a word.

10. Poetry Vocabulary  DICTION-poet's distinctive choices in vocabulary.

11. Poetry Vocabulary  ECHO-repetition of key words or ideas for effect.

12. Poetry Vocabulary  FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE: A form of language use in which writers and speakers mean something other than the literal meaning of their words. (E.g. hyperbole, metaphor, and simile)

13. Poetry Vocabulary  FORM: the arrangement, manner or method used to convey the content, such as free verse, couplet, limerick, haiku...

14. Poetry Vocabulary  FREE VERSE: Poetry without a regular pattern of meter or rhyme.

15. Poetry Vocabulary  Haiku- a major form of Japanese verse, written in 17 syllables divided into 3 lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables, and employing highly evocative allusions and comparisons, often on the subject of nature or one of the seasons.

16. Poetry Vocabulary  HOMONYM: Two or more distinct words with the same pronunciation and spelling but with different meanings.  Ex. Row can mean to paddle a boat, a fight, or in a line.

17. Poetry Vocabulary  HOMOPHONE: two or more words with the same pronunciation but with different meanings and spellings.  Whether and weather, pear, pare and pair.

18. Poetry Vocabulary  HYPERBOLE: an exaggeration of the truth.  Ex. My book bag weighs a ton!

19. Poetry Vocabulary  IAMBIC PENTAMETER- a common meter in poetry consisting of an unrhymed line with five feet or accents, each foot containing an unaccented syllable and an accented syllable.

20. Poetry Vocabulary  IMAGE: A concrete representation of a sense impression, a feeling, or an idea.

21. Poetry Vocabulary  IMAGERY: Figurative language used to create particular mental images

22. Poetry Vocabulary  METAPHOR: an association of two completely different objects as being the same thing.  “All the world’s a stage”

23. Poetry Vocabulary  METER: The measured pattern of rhythmic accents in poems.

24. Poetry Vocabulary  ONOMATOPOEIA- use of words resembling the sounds they mean.  Bark, meow, buzz

25. Poetry Vocabulary  OXYMORON- a seeming contradiction in two words put together.  Girly man, jumbo shrimp

26. Poetry Vocabulary  PERSONIFICATION- attribution of human motives or behaviors to impersonal agencies.  The trees waved to us as we passed.

27. Poetry Vocabulary  RHYME: The matching of final vowel or consonant sounds in two or more words.

28. Poetry Vocabulary  RHYMING COUPLET-a pair of lines which end-rhyme expressing one clear thought  For never was there a story of more woe, Than this of Juliet and her Romeo. Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.

29. Poetry Vocabulary  RHYTHM: The recurrence of accent or stress in lines of verse.

30. Poetry Vocabulary  SETTING: The time and place of a literary work that establishes its context.  Ex. “It was a cold winter day in the town of Ipswich.”

31. Poetry Vocabulary  SIMILE: A figure of speech invoking a comparison between unlike things using "like," "as," or "as though.“  The girl looked as if she’d seen a ghost.

32. Poetry Vocabulary  STRUCTURE: The design or form of a literary work.

33. Poetry Vocabulary  SYMBOL: An object or action in a literary work that means more than itself, that stands for something beyond itself.  Ex. Stars, eagle, sun.

34. Poetry Vocabulary  SYNONYM: One of two or more words that have the same or nearly the same meanings.  Ex. Joyful, glad, happy.

35. Poetry Vocabulary  TONE: The implied attitude of a writer (or speaker) toward the subject and characters of a work.  Ex. Gloomy, apathetic, joyful.